


Children

by 2space_lesbo1



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Experimental Style, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Probably multiple parts, i'm coping, they're children, they're gonna be children, we'll have to see though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-08 05:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13451937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2space_lesbo1/pseuds/2space_lesbo1
Summary: A look into the past through a series of one-shots.The first chapter is short, but they'll probably get longer as it goes.





	1. The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> So i watched Devilman Crybaby and I cried my eyes out at the end. But, after a while once I finally stopped crying, I began to wonder about Ryo and Akira's relationship when they were children. And, because I did not see many fics of when they were kids, i decided to take it upon myself and try my best to write one-shot chapters of when they were young. Also, yes, this is experimental cause I have no idea how to write Ryo yet here I am trying :'D Probably will be mostly from Akira's pov in later chapters but we'll just have to see. Please tell me if I'm doing a good job at writing even if this first chapter isn't a good way to start for critiques haha.
> 
> This will probably be updated later today or tomorrow depending on when I finish the next one-shot.

Ryo knew he was different the moment he opened his eyes to see Akira standing before him, hand outstretched and young eyes filled with a child’s innocence. He knew he was different as he took the offered hand into his and felt the contrast warmth to his cold beneath the human boy’s palm and fingers. He knew he was different as he was pulled into a light, warm hug and stared ahead, unsure of what to make of this surely comforting contact. 

He just didn’t know how. And, with Akira hugging him, the human’s warmth was too distracting to figure out how. It made his mind muddled, sluggish, almost. Yet he didn’t understand how or why. He also didn’t understand why he didn’t just push Akira away. He already believed emotions like this pointless. But he didn’t push the other away.

Instead, Ryo wrapped his arms around Akira instead quietly, letting himself be warmed by the other. 

He probably should have pushed Akira away that day. It probably would have saved him the immense pain he feels now as he cradles a dead body close to himself. It probably would have kept him unfeeling, sure of himself. 

Yet he didn’t and oddly couldn’t push Akira away and that was the beginning of his downfall into human emotion. 

He didn’t hate Akira for this, though. Oh, no. What he felt for the human was something else. Something warm and constant. Something he could never shake away. 

Perhaps it is what humans call love. 

Though, in his young mind he couldn’t have possibly made this connection. He hardly knew himself much less useless human emotions. 

But the seeds were already being planted as Akira finally pulled away, offering him a small smile. Had it been anyone else, even at the time, Ryo most likely would not have smiled back. Yet somehow within the short amount of time, the few minutes they had known one another, Akira had already begun to sneak past Ryo’s defenses. Which should have been an impossible task in itself. 

But he smiled back, as warmly and friendly as he could and Akira led him from the shore, towards the town nearby.


	2. School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I told you this would update quickly... it may again, actually. I just can't stop writing these two now. This chapter is also short on both words and descriptions but I promise the next one will be longer. And from Akira's point of view.

Ryo remembers how… separate he was from the other children in his class. He remembers his first day in the small school on the small island clearly, as though it hadn’t happened years ago but instead the day before. He hadn’t really known what to make of this “school”, but his caretakers had told him to attend and he really didn’t know why. He didn’t see the point of attending this school when he probably knew more than even the adults acting more as babysitters than teachers. They were not even really teaching anything important, really. They would all sit around in a circle and be “taught” a song going of letters and numbers. He didn’t see the appeal or the reason.

When he had first walked in, he instantly realized he was going to be continuously surrounded by annoying children and adults for hours throughout these ridiculous weeks. He doesn’t even know how long he’s going to be forced to attend this school, either. He just hopes it’s not long. He doesn’t really like the idea of waking up in early hours everyday for something so useless to. 

He hadn’t known anyone upon walking into his classroom, and he thought it was going to stay that way. But then his eyes had landed on Akira, the boy that had greeted him upon waking, sitting on the other side of the room, a large grin on his face as he waved to the cold eyed boy. 

Ryo hadn’t known if he was going to see Akira again after he’d been introduced to the town. And, he hadn’t known if he wanted to see the boy again. Yet, he believed he did as he once more saw the smile on his face. 

Maybe there was one human here he could tolerate, at the least.

He had walked over to Akira, keeping his face neutral as Akira ran forward and once more hugged him. He really needs to learn why and what it meant to hug another.

“Ryo!” Akira exclaimed and the young boy pulls away, that stupid grin still on his face. “I didn’t know we are in the same class! I missed you!”

Akira… missed him? Did Ryo miss Akira? Maybe.. He still couldn’t really tell. Though, he did know that he would rather be stuck with Akira than any of the other children. Or even the adults who claimed to know what was best for him. While he was being situated into a house he had wondered the entire time if he was going to see Akira again, even it was pointless if he did. He had wondered if Akira would hug him again and tell him everything was okay even if it really wasn’t. 

Maybe he had missed Akira.

“I missed you, too,” Ryo said, trying the words out as he speaks, meeting the warm eyes so much unlike his own of Akira’s. 

“We’re friends, right, Ryo?” Akira asked next and Ryo’s lips draw into a thin line. He falls silent as he mulls the question over along with the meaning of the word, the meaning of what it meant if he said yes. A friend was someone close to you, right? A friend was someone you… loved, or, at the least, liked. And, while Ryo was sure he liked Akira more than the other foolish humans, already, he didn’t know if he liked him that much to accept his friendship.

Though, as he continued to stare and not answer, Ryo could clearly see the useless emotions shifting in the other boy’s eyes from excitement to being unsure to fear. Fear of what, Ryo wasn’t sure. Perhaps fear that Ryo would decline and be done with him. The boy didn’t seem to have any friends so it would make sense if that were the case, actually. And, so, he found himself answering to ease the other boy’s fears before he could stop himself, not understanding why he was so eager to calm Akira even though he did not yet know the answer fully.

“We are,” he answered in a still bland tone, not sure of how else to speak. He’s nearly blinded by the largest grinAkira has given him thus far, the young boy’s eyes scrunching from its intensity.

And then Akira follows Ryo around like a puppy, doing what he does and wanting to be around only him. Which, in all honesty, Ryo doesn’t understand why Akira would want to be around him. Akira is so bright and filled to the brim with warmth while Ryo is so dark and freezing cold. It probably baffles him to have such loyalty from another kid his age following him everywhere.

But, then again, Ryo also follows Akira. Where and who else would he go to? Akira is the least annoying of the humans. Ryo even prefers him over his “caretakers”. 

“You don’t smile a lot,” Akira remarks one day, sprawled out on the ground beside Ryo in the classroom. He has an originally blank piece of paper now covered in multicolored scribbles that Ryo thinks Akira believes to be a picture. He continues to scribble with a now yellow crayon, his brown eyes so focused.

Ryo glances at him. He too is on the floor though he is sitting up rather than laying across the uncomfortable, wood ground. He would be drawing, too, if he could. But the teachers had taken that privilege away from him when he had drawn a large creature beheading a person with its tail. He had been proud of his work and had wanted to show Akira because Akira is always showing him his drawings, now it was his turn. His was way better than anything Akira had ever drawn, anyway. His drawing wasn’t just scribbles. It had an actual form to it.

On his way to do just that, however, a teacher had seen his drawing and blanched at the sight, her eyes widening at the sight. Things hadn’t gone well after that as she tore the drawing from Ryo’s hands despite the child’s protests.

“Give it back!” he had yelled, hands curling into fists at his sides. “That’s my drawing, Ms. Jonsdottir!”

He knew that the teachers and other kids don’t like him or Akira that much. Him because he was strange, and Akira because he was a crybaby. He knew that that is part of the reason Ms. Jonsdottir took his drawing without saying much else.

He clenched his teeth and looked away from the teacher even as she scolded him, eyes ending up on Akira as the other boy hurried over, having noticed the situation. They had only been separated because it was “student bonding time” and the teachers insisted on them working with other kids. Even though Ryo found that pointless because Akira was the only one he could ever like. All others were just annoying. Especially the kid he had been partnered up with. She would not stop trying to get in his personal space and trying to know what he was doing the entire time. And while Akira did that, too, that was forgivable because he was Akira and knew when to stop. This girl did not and he was hardly able to draw his masterpiece.

As Akira approached Ryo could already see the tears sliding down his cheeks, lips curled into a frown. Ryo begins to wonder what could have possibly made him cry this time when he realizes his current situation could be the cause. That was Akira, always crying for others more than himself, it seemed.

“You think so?” Ryo asked Akira presently, crossing his legs as he continues to watch the other boy draw. 

“Yeah…” Akira replied, placing the yellow crayon down to replace it with the black. Ryo frowns as he takes notice that it is broken despite Akira’s careful care. He knows that Akira loves his crayons and would never break one. In fact, he never has, lightly pressing down to avoid doing so. He knows someone else must have broken it and that oddly makes him upset, even as Akira continues to use it, as though taking no notice of its broken state. Though, Ryo knows he noticed. “Though, you don’t cry a lot, either.”

Ryo blinks and then shrugs. He’s never found any real reason to cry. It’s pointless and useless, so much like so many other things. “Why would I need to? You cry enough for both of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what ya'll think :)


	3. Kitten-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um.. yeah, I decided to write more. And this time the writing isn't as experimental and more to my true style so it's not as choppy lol. It has an actual clear plot haha
> 
>  
> 
> And yes, this has the kitten from the first and last episodes. Though in this fic... it most likely isn't gonna die so sh. I want my boys to be happy.

If there was one thing Akira knew, it was that not a lot of people liked him and Ryo. He didn’t understand why they wouldn’t like his best friend, though. Ryo was really nice, after all. So nice he stayed as Akira’s friend even as others bully him with harsh words or actions because of what he is. He does know what he is to others, after all; a crybaby. He’s known that since his first day at school, it wasn’t a new fact. He was a crybaby and others didn’t like him because of that fact.

Except for Ryo, anyway.

Since the first day Akira had met him Ryo has stayed by his side as a friend, even if others did not understand the blonde haired child. Sometimes Akira didn’t understand him, either, but that was okay because Ryo was his friend that stayed with him even as he cried his eyes dry nearly everyday.

But, most of the time when he cries, he does for someone else. He never cries for himself.. Aside for one time when he found a small, injured kitten one day.

Akira and Ryo had decided to go out for the day, bored of being cooped up all day long. Akira leads the way up their favorite hill, the place where they had met. The wind brushes against him but he doesn’t mind, enjoying the sound of the waves below crashing against the rock face beneath their feet. He loves coming to this area with Ryo. And he thinks Ryo likes it too because normally the other boy has a look of peace in his eyes.

“Look at that cloud, Ryo,” Akira said, pointing to a large, puffy cloud formed above their heads. They are sat on the edge of the cliff, feet hanging over the side. Ryo had been staring blankly at the waves just beneath their feet only to slowly look up as directed by his friend. “It looks like a cat!” And, sure enough, the cloud has the familiar shape of a feline body. Akira loves cats and dogs and all kinds of other animals. He loves almost any kind of animal, in fact.

Ryo stares at the cloud for a few seconds and then shrugs, not sharing Akira’s excitement over the shaped cloud. “It couldn’t be a cat,” he stated, sounding bored. Though, Akira has learnt that even he sounds bored, he isn’t always. It can be hard to tell the difference sometimes but Akira thinks he’s the best at it. He is probably the only one that even tries, after all. “Besides, clouds are just gathers of water vapor waiting to drop in the forms of rain.”

“Yeah, but it looks like a cat,” Akira says once more, letting whatever kind of explanation Ryo gave go over his head. In their relationship on normal days, Akira will point something out with his childish interest and Ryo will give an explanation of what it is.

Ryo frowns and then looks at Akira, as though he would find the cat shape on his face instead of the cloud Akira just pointed out. He appears like he’s about to say something else, but Akira suddenly stands, the sound of an actual cat mewling catching his attention. Ryo watches him stand, eyebrows scrunching together. “What?” he asked, studying his friend’s face.

Akira focuses on the cat meowing and his heartbeat quickens as it sounds like the cat is in pain. “Don’t you hear that?” he asked, already walking in the direction of the noise. His eyes are beginning to sting, the telltale sign that he’s about to cry because of the pain in the cat’s meowing. He tries his best to hold them back, though. But as he nears the sound the first few tears begin to slide from the corners of his eyes as Ryo walks up beside him and looks down at the box he’d found. “It’s hurt, Ryo!” He cried out, bending over to get a closer look at the kitten.

Ryo doesn’t say anything but as Akira carefully grabs the kitten he can hear his friend unsheathing the boxcutter he’s always carrying around. And while akira thinks Ryo could get hurt carrying something like that around- or hurt someone else as the blonde boy seems so intent on doing at all times- he’s grown pretty used to seeing the tool. But now he can already tell what his friend is planning on using it for and he hugs the kitten to his chest. 

“No, Ryo!” Akira yells, keeping his back to his friend even as Ryo is grabbing his shoulder, trying to turn him around. And, because Ryo is the taller of the two, he is successful in forcing Akira around. “Don’t hurt it!” This would not be the last time they fight over what to do with this particular kitten.

“I’m not going to hurt it, Akira, I’m going to kill it!” Ryo yells back, grappling at the kitten and Akira pulls out of his grip, turning back around. “Hand it over, Akira, it’s going to die anyway!”

“No!” Akira shouts again, sobbing when he squeezes the kitten a little too hard and causes it to mewl out in pain once more. His fingers brush along the kitten’s greasy fur and the many missing patches. He tries his best to readjust his grip even as Ryo grabs for it again. “We can help it get better, Ryo!”

Ryo basically snarls, holding the boxcutter outwards behind him. “No we can’t, Akira, it won’t work! It’s going to die anyway!” He throws the boxcutter down to use both of his hands now, roughly grabbing Akira’s shoulders. “Just give it to me!” 

And that’s when Ryo pushes Akira to the ground in his attempts to force the kitten from his friend’s hands, sending him to the rough, rock ground. Silence falls over the two children before Akira begins to cry even heavier, not just for the kitten now but for himself as well. While it is rare that he cries for himself, he is now because Ryo, his only friend, just pushed him. He locks his eyes on the ground past Ryo, hugging the kitten even closer to his chest as his backside begins to throb.

“A- Akira,” Ryo stammers yet Akira still doesn’t look at him, lips trembling. There’s thump beside him and he can just see Ryo collapsed on his knees, as though he too had been pushed to the ground. Akira swallows heavily and stubbornly looks away, bottom lip puckering out. “Come on, Akira, you know I didn’t mean to.” The blonde sounds apologetic yet a bit annoyed at the same time. He normally grows annoyed when Akira acts like this. It’s not often, but they do have their fights. 

Akira continues to keep his gaze away from Ryo, moving to once more have his back to the other. He now has a better control over his years and he merely sniffles softly, a few tears left to hang on his round cheeks. The kitten mewls once more and twists a little in Amira’s hug, it’s small nose coming up towards his cheek before it begins to lick at his face despite its weak state. Akira giggles softly despite himself as the rough tongue slides across his much smoother skin. 

“Wha- what are you laughing at?” Ryo asked and he sounds genuinely offended. Perhaps it’s because he believes that the only person he actually likes and trusts is laughing at him. He doesn’t like being laughed at by other people- it doesn’t happen much since he’d attacked the last group of kids to do so- so for Akira to possibly be laughing at him is a stab at his young heart. “I- I’m sorry…” he seems to have great difficulty saying that word and Akira starts, looking over his shoulder at his friend before turning around fully. Ryo never apologizes to anyone. He may have apologized one other time to Akira when he’d accidentally cut him when using a pair of scissors, so this turn of events was major in Akira’s young eyes. 

Akira offers a warm smile and pats the kitten’s head as it continues to lap at what is left of his tears. “It’s okay, Ryo,” he said as his smile turns to a grin. “If you didn’t mean to I forgive you!” 

Ryo shakily returns a small smile, his normally dull eyes lighting a little. Then they land on the kitten in Akira’s arms and he loses both the smile and the light. “Now, can I have it?” He asked and Akira frowns as well now. 

“No, Ryo,” he said with a shake of his head. He scratches the kitten behind its ear and it begins to purr loudly and shakily, almost as if it is unsure of how to return his affection. A lot like his friend, actually. “It’s gonna be okay, see?” 

“It’s licking your face,” Ryo states blandly but at least he hasn’t grabbed his boxcutter again. “It’s still going to die anyway. All we’ll be doing is wasting our time with it.”

“You don’t know that until you try, Ryo!” Akira declares with yet another blinding grin and Ryo falters, lips pressing together as he looks from the hurt kitten to his friend’s face. “And we have to try or we’ll be quitters, right?” 

Ryo lets out a heavy sigh. He’s never enjoyed the thought of being a quitter so he does not entertain the idea now. Akira knows him too well even at their young age, it would seem. 

“Okay,” Ryo said finally after a few seconds and when he grabs his boxcutter Akira tenses, only for the blade to be stuffed back into the blonde’s pocket. “But you better not cry when it dies.” That statement goes on two pairs of deaf ears because they both know Akira would bawl his eyes out of the kitten died. 

“Come on, Ryo!” Akira exclaimed, hopping to his feet excitedly. He can already see tons of ideas for how and where to keep the kitten streaming through his brain and he wants to start helping it now. “It can stay at my place!”

Ryo stands more slowly and surely catches up with his energetic friend, falling in place beside him as they make their way back to town. Akira hums beside him at some point and Ryo looks up, meeting his eyes. 

“You really shouldn’t carry that around,” Akira said matter of factly and Ryo already knows he’s speaking of the boxcutter. This is another thing they’ve argued about multiple times. Akira is worried Ryo will get hurt while Ryo is more than worried that if he doesn’t have he’ll get hurt. “It’s dangerous, ya know.” 

“As you’ve told me tons and tons of times,” Ryo said passively, putting his hands in his pockets. He runs his fingers along the handle of the blade, almost appreciating it. “But I need it.” 

“Why?”

“To survive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always if you liked it or have any critiques please let me know as a comment or a kudo because both of those get me to continue writing. Please leave a comment I enjoy those and they feed me ;3;

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what ya'll think of my idea and if you'd like to see some one-shots :')


End file.
